Jeanne Godfrey - How to Use Your Reading in Your Essays

How to Use your Reading in your Essays

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How to Use your Reading in your Essays

Second edition

Jeanne Godfrey

Jeanne Godfrey 2013

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.

Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published 2013 by

PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

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Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martins Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

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ISBN: 978 1 137294685

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Printed in China

For my family

Acknowledgements

This second edition, as in the first, is a product of the knowledge and experience I have gained over the years. I would, therefore, like to thank all the students I have taught, and colleagues and other experts in the field whose work I have read, discussed and pondered as I progress in my own understanding. I would also like to thank again the Palgrave Macmillan team for their support in bringing this second edition to publication, especially Suzannah Burywood, Della Oliver and Alec McAulay.

Introduction: an exampleand overview of how reading is used in an essay

A fundamental part of academic study is reading other peoples work on a subject and using what you have read to develop your own thinking and writing. This book will take you through the process of using what you read in your written work, from deciding what to read to checking your work for mistakes. How to Use your Reading in your Essays looks specifically at using your reading in non-exam essays, but the information it gives is also relevant to most types of academic writing across most subject areas. This book will increase your knowledge of how to use the chapters, books and articles you read effectively, and will thereby give you the confidence to produce good writing and to get the highest marks possible for your work.

This book will show you:

• how to decide which types of books and articles are suitable to read for your essays and which are probably not;
• how to understand and question what you read;
• what information to write down and how to make notes that enable you to use your reading properly and effectively in your essays;
• why, when and how to use quotations in your essays;
• why, when and how to put what you read into your own words;
• why, when and how to integrate your own points with ideas from your reading;
• words and phrases to use when you are integrating and evaluating your reading;
• brief explanations of grammatical areas that often cause problems in student writing;
• examples of common mistakes to check for and to avoid in your own work.

How to Use your Reading in your Essays takes you through the process of using your reading in clear stages, and gives you key points, examples and practice exercises, using real texts and student essays. It explains simply and clearly both the why of using your reading and the practical how of doing so.

In ) I have included some adapted material from my book The Student Phrase Book, 2013.

The rest of this introductory section gives you an example and overview of how reading is used in a non-exam essay and gives you points to remember when you are writing your own assignments.